The London Cycling Campaign have joined Transport for London in calling for the reintroduction of the guard's van in which to store the bikes.

The restrictions are being introduced by South West Trains, which is slashing both the times and places where passengers will be able to take their bikes on services in Surrey, Berkshire and Hampshire.

Under the regulations people with bikes will not be able to board trains at peak times between

7.15am and 10am and 4.15pm and 7pm. Cyclists will also be banned from getting on or off at stations between Feltham and Vauxhall.

SWT commercial director Rufus Boyd said: "The difficulty we have is that we run a very busy railway and there is just not space for cycles during the peak hours on many of our trains.

"Our priority has to be paying customers over cycles stored on trains."

A spokesman for the London Cycling Campaign criticised the move, saying: "By restricting travel and narrowing times for cyclists, the rail companies are going against government policy.

"I would put it to these operators that they have not really explored the potential solutions."

He blamed the "elimination of goods wagons" for the problems facing cyclists and called on them to be reinstated.

That view was backed up by a spokesman for Transport for London, who said that they could understand bikes could not be housed on peak services but that cyclists should be encouraged at all other times.

Similar cycle bans already exist on Thameslink services between Bedford and Brighton, and also on South Eastern Trains, which operates in Kent, south London and parts of East Sussex.

The decision to enforce the ban was revealed in August in a leaked memo to senior staff at South West Trains. The Thameslink ban, which restricts cycles between 7am and 10am and on trains leaving London between 4pm and 7pm, was introduced on 11 September.

A Thameslink spokesman said: "Cyclists tend to be fairly vociferous about their right to take bikes on trains.

"I have always found it strange that people would take one mode of transport and put it on another."

Back in June, thousands of participants in the London to Brighton bike ride were unable to get home again after train companies refused to allow them on to the train with their bikes.

Both South Central and Thameslink Trains turned away crowds of cyclists who turned up at Brighton station, saying the carriages were too small.

British Transport Police were brought in as the dispute heated up.

Despite rail chiefs putting up posters in stations telling the cyclists they would not be able to take their bike on the train on the day of the charity ride, many people were unaware of the changes and had turned up anyway.

Cycling groups complained rail companies were neglecting them as off-peak travellers in favour of cramming in as many commuters as possible.